The Generation Game: Ford Mustang

[05XR8]

You’ve got the very cool SCCA Saleen Mustangs in Foxbody and SN95 form.

The famous IMSA GTO Mustang.

Championship winning FR500 Mustangs. Just at the beginning of the GT4 era.

First GT4 Mustang to win on debut, in GT4 Australia.

 

[Tornado]

What're the Mustang's credentials on the track?

If you give Ford $350,000 they will give you a car that's slightly slower around a track than a Corvette that costs 2/3rd as much.

 

[MatskiMonk]

What're the Mustang's credentials on the track? I know it raced in the BTCC around the early 70s, possibly even the 60s, when nobody cared how big your car's engine was.

Just a general curiosity.

I recall Marc VDS running them in GT3 around 2010, and them not being very good.

 

[Tornado]

I know it raced in the BTCC around the early 70s, possibly even the 60s, when nobody cared how big your car's engine was.

But to be serious nothing much beyond Trans Am until the mid 1980s when Saleen started racing them successfully in SCCA World Challenge in whatever class was below the one the C4s/Esprits/300ZXs happened to be running in; then in the late 1990s as those three were being shuffled out but the C5s and Vipers and 996s hadn't been shuffled in Saleens were very good in the top class against the NSXs. The Saleen Allen Speedlabs cars weren't able to make the jump to the next "tier" of international competition very well when they were competing against full fat factory teams, but they didn't embarrass themselves.


After that Saleen started focusing his development efforts on getting the S7 into production and into FIA GT and ALMS competition so usage of the Mustangs in that sort of competition fell off a cliff.

 

[NotThePrez]

Foxbodies also raced in the German Production Car Championship, the precursor to the DTM, in the 80s. Heavily modified, 500+ Horsepower Mustangs also raced in the DTM proper in the early 90s.

From what I gather (and the video above), the cars weren't majorly competitive, but they were massive crowd-pleasers all the same.

 

[Chris30]

Foxbodies also raced in the German Production Car Championship, the precursor to the DTM, in the 80s. Heavily modified, 500+ Horsepower Mustangs also raced in the DTM proper in the early 90s.


View attachment 1476859View attachment 1476860View attachment 1476861



From what I gather (and the video above), the cars weren't majorly competitive, but they were massive crowd-pleasers all the same.

Wow nice, I actually like the Foxbody designs but I can only choose one category of the Mustang's. I have to make a final decision by the 7th of this month. I'm sure they were a major attraction to many groups of families back in the day. I'll have to look at more extensive videos about this model. And do more research too.

 

[Chris30]

I just changed my vote to the Foxbody(1979-1994). I researched about it for 2 hours last night.

 

[Veinz]

The 69 easily gets my vote. But one of my neighbors picked up a white Darkhorse and that thing looks hot af, too bad it’s an automatic.

Every fox body I seen around here is usually some obnoxiously loud and rusty **** box. I don’t find them particularly good looking if they’re in good shape either.

 

[Liquid]

@Adamgp Out of curiosity, what swung your vote to the '71 Mustang?

 

[Adamgp]

@Adamgp Out of curiosity, what swung your vote to the '71 Mustang?

I like them. Not as common as the '64-'70, although I do like those as welll.

 

[Liquid]

I swear that someone once posted an image of a Mustang marketing poster which basically advertised it as a 6-pot stroller for grandma to go to the shops in but I cannot find it anywhere on the board.

Found it.

On a jovial note, it reminds me of when Homer bought an F-series Canyonero.

"I've bought the updated Falcon."
"Eh, you've bought a Mustang."
"What?!"
"Yeah, see this 6 pot with good MPG figures? You're part of the sweetheart set, precious."
"Oh, crap! It's a girl's car!"

On a serious note, having looked through the Mustang ads of the time, I have to say that Ford cleverly marketed it towards men and women, male drivers and female drivers, on the Mustang's customisability meaning that two Mustangs could be kitted out very differently. Obviously the model went in one particular direction over time but it's quite a nice wrinkle in the fabric of automotive history to see Ford's brand-new sports luxury car find its place in the market.

 

[TheCracker]

The early Mustang was always the TT to the Falcon's A3/Golf. It was only when Trans-Am became massively popular that the Pony Car Wars developed them all into over-powered muscle cars.

They were in original concept, little more than a slightly sportier shaped grocery getter.

As much hate as the Mustang II gets (and deserves) it stayed true to the original script whilst the late 60's, early 70's Mustangs got buff.

 

[BKGlover]

I said S550, and this time it's simple for me. It looked good at release and the refresh didn't do much if any harm, people genuinely wanted to drive the car no matter the options, and while those with money to burn replace their racers quickly enough, I can remember there was almost an active movement to the S550 by anyone wanting a modern project or weekend pleasure. It made me think that Ford might decide to sell a luxury loaded version as a Lincoln and try to revive the idea of a "personal luxury coupe".

The S650 has already failed to grab people locally for a few reasons, I have yet to see a single base model, and as neat as homologated racers are, I've reached a level of jaded that leads me to dismiss them as propaganda.

I wanted to vote for the SN95. I think the New Edge refresh was a sharp design...but I know better. The original was a parts bin special that worked, then quickly was swallowed by excess. The II was overly hated, and I'll say that I never liked the foxbody, still don't get the love for it, nor did I like the S197 at all until the last refresh cleaned up the looks.

 

[Greycap]

MY64. As a fastback. Everything since was downhill from there.

 

[wfooshee]

... obnoxiously loud ...

That's all too common for recent Mustangs, too. These jerks with almost no muffling at all and their "HERE I AM" mentality. The ones with automatics and loud exhausts are especially horrible!

 

[r_outsider]

On a serious note, having looked through the Mustang ads of the time, I have to say that Ford cleverly marketed it towards men and women, male drivers and female drivers, on the Mustang's customisability meaning that two Mustangs could be kitted out very differently. Obviously the model went in one particular direction over time but it's quite a nice wrinkle in the fabric of automotive history to see Ford's brand-new sports luxury car find its place in the market.

That's the thing, it was always supposed to be, first and foremost, a fun, affordable, decent looking, mid-sized sporty-ish car who's number one function is being, well, a car, a useful, reasonably practical but still fun car. Used that "fun" word twice for a reason. One you could option up if you wanted to, or not, you could make it into a race car of some sort but that wasn't supposed to be it's primary point. A sports car for everyone, is what Iacocca had originally envisioned. And it was.

I like most of them in one way or another, the 69/70 are probably my favourites but there's an internal argument to be made for many different versions. I've sure owned enough of them and had even more in my orbit with friends and family, dozens of them, all the way back to my Dad's '67 Fastback. They sort of started losing the plot with the S550 as it was starting to lose it's practicality and become just a bit too hard and extreme, and although I've not driven a 650 yet, they sure don't seem to be being bought or used as dailies anymore and they've no longer anything even close to mid-sized. Or really affordable. So I voted for the S197, because I feel that it was the last one that still had that original recipe before they started to go a little too far down the road racer path. And partly because one has been my daily for nearly 20 years and 470,000kms. And I still smile every time I drive it. And on a bad day, I just have to remember, as I'm rolling down the road in my old Mustang listening to the Rolling Stones on the radio with the windows down, half the planet wishes they could be there, the other half of course wishes it was The Beatles on the radio.